


look around it's glorious

by MercuryMerc



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Exploring Cass's asianness, F/F, Minor Romance, No proofreading we die like mne, Tim Drake is Chinese
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 03:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15258429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryMerc/pseuds/MercuryMerc
Summary: Cassandra Cain doesn't know where she comes from.





	look around it's glorious

**Author's Note:**

> I got stuck with Gotham Born, Gotham Raised. Not betaed. Also for reference, when I mention Tim, I always write Tim as Chinese. So he's Chinese here.

The Lunar New Year in Gotham Chinatown was one of the biggest festivals of the year. It shut down street after street with sheer masses of people wearing red crowding the streets. Each street looked like it was veined with red and gold. Formally all the restaurants and shops were closed for the day. But they stayed opened, streaming with people walking in and out sharing food. 

Gotham was not a nice place, and neither was Gotham Chinatown. But for the day the revelry was loud enough to paper over the cracks and grime. And Cassandra Cain found herself walking among it. 

She blended well enough into the crowd. Tim, paranoid with years of old Chinese superstition, always forced everyone from family to friends to acquaintances to wear red. And she was no exception. Even though he was currently in Hong Kong, a neat package with a long sleeved red shirt made its way to her doorstep. And so she was as brightly red as most of the others cheering along the street. 

Still despite how well she blended into the crowd, she couldn't help but feel some sense of alienation. She didn't know if she belonged, she didn't know if she didn't. Her father and her mother had never been forthcoming about where she come from and so she found herself always stuck in places like these. 

The general excitement was infectious though, and Cass found herself bobbing along to the ear-shattering music blasting from each shop and the crash of pans and loud gongs reverberating from the half crowd, half parade. 

Someone shouted behind her. Cass tilted her head in confusion, she turned around to look. An old woman was looking directly at her shouting. She was bent over from age, and her face was lined with swirling lines. She was wearing a semi-traditional Chinese red silk top and leaning heavily on a dark wooden cane. She shook her head and spoke again, "You are not from around here are you?"

"No," Cass said. "I am not." 

"Hmph," She drew herself up. "I didn't think so, you didn't greet me as you passed by. As she said, Cass began to notice the nods from the people streaming past her. Indeed everyone seemed to tilt toward her presence. 

"Do you have family here?" She asked.

Cass hesitated. Her family was here, but certainly not  _here_.

Regardless the old woman seemed to understand her. "Well, if it's your first time here without your family, then you must eat at my place. No one is to eat without family today. I am Chung Yao, the owner of this restaurant." 

She tapped on the frame of red wooden frame of her door and turned to go into her restaurant. It was a hole in the wall restaurant. The decaying wooden frame was painted a vibrant red, and laminated photos of food were plastered on the outside of the glass window that illuminated the grotesque shiny forms of hanging ducks. There wasn't a sign for the restaurant's name, but that certainly didn't seem to stop its popularity with the rest of the people. It was filled with shouting, sweating cooks and equally shouting, sweating happy people slinging food and singing together. 

A familiar arm slid around her waist. "Hey babe," Steph said into her ear. She squeezed her arm tighter. "Where've you been?" 

Cass smiled and leaned back a little, "Just here."

"Mmmm, well we've got some dinner reservations waiting for us, let's go." Steph kissed her shoulder. 

"No, want to stay here," Cass twisted around in Steph's arms and brought her arms up around Steph's neck. "Today." 

It was subtle, but something shifted in Steph's eyes. She took in their surroundings. The loud banging of pots and pans, the families all crowded together shouting their exuberance and the way sparklers lit the grimy sidewalk of the street and she seemed to get it. 

Steph nodded slowly and squeezed her arms around Cass's waist, "Alright, let's stay." 

Cass crossed the space in between them and kissed her. She would never get tired of kissing her. And it seemed like Steph would never get tired of kissing her because Steph gently cradled her cheek as the kiss grew deeper.

Cass leaned her forehead against Steph's forehead. She didn't know where she came from, but she certainly knew where she belonged. 


End file.
